Alright, Northampton, it’s November. Halloween decorations down, Christmas decorations up - slowly. But first, let’s enjoy the thanksgiving spirit these upcoming days bring forth.

Starting off with Veterans Day Nov. 11, we have a huge responsibility to recognize and thank no more fitting a group than our selfless veterans. While on Memorial Day, we solemnly honor those servicemen and women who have passed away, we now enthusiastically celebrate those veterans living among us.

You should find this all the easier via the hundreds of reminders in the form of Hometown Heroes banners flying throughout town. With such a large number of banners, it’s totally plausible everyone in town knows someone who’s so honored and deserving of a “thank you.” Find that person, reach out to them and show your true gratitude!

In years past, I found it most enjoyable to invite my veteran friends out for breakfast or dinner and just sit back, listening to their stories. You learn so much about the trials and tribulations they quietly hold, whether or not they’ve seen wartime action. Those encounters have also left me feeling deeply that I’ve really missed something special, that fraternity and camaraderie, by not having served.

If you’re looking for a way to get into the Veterans Day spirit all the more, here’s the perfect solution. The Northampton Area Historical Society will host a Veterans Day celebration 1:30 p.m. Nov. 12 in the Northampton Area High School auditorium, 1619 Laubach Ave., including a band concert featuring the music of the World War II era. The event will commemorate our hometown heroes and the sacrifices they made. Please join me!

How will you thank our veterans this November?

At this point, I feel an apology for the delayed riverfront garden park is necessary. My apologies for the delay, everyone. The park is still at the forefront of my initiatives with the assistance of our public works department. However, the perfect storm of unforeseen boroughwide infrastructure repairs, uncooperative weather and understaffing all but pushed the park off the required project list to the elective project list for now.

The plans are still in place for a quick start, along with two, newly announced monarch butterfly garden projects, for an early spring groundbreaking. That’s right, we not only have one monarch butterfly garden fully committed, but two. One will be completed as an Eagle Scout project by Holly DeFiore and the other, thanks to a generous donation by Holy Trinity Slovak Lutheran Church, as a memorial garden. So, yes, we have two on the drawing board!

Given the overwhelming success of our first monarch butterfly garden on the north end of Canal Street Park, I’m all the more excited and anxious to get the new areas underway. Once completed, I have no doubt these projects ensure the D&L Trail pathway, along the river, will be all the more colorful and picturesque.

As for our roadways, despite our best efforts to get the recent UGI-excavated streets fully repaired, know we continue to be at the mercy of UGI and the contractor’s glacially slow schedule. I know it’s a frequent topic of misery at council meeting and conversations I’ve had with many of you around town, but the matter continues to be beyond our control. We’ll keep trying for a quicker resolution, but the best we’re hoping for now are your patience and understanding.

Please remember, for what little it may be worth in the long run, this is a temporary inconvenience toward a long-term safety solution. May your car’s shock absorbers forgive us, too.

Lastly, Thanksgiving Day is Nov. 23. I should not have to remind you to be thankful that, for all of its flaws, we still live in the greatest country on Earth. We share unparalleled opportunities for happiness, wonderful places in which to travel and make new best friends or just hang out at your own backyard oasis enjoying the company of your friends and family. Good food, air conditioning, clean water, the Roxy! You get it, I know. So, for all I have, big, small, indifferent and you, thank you, Lord.

See you at our Christmas tree lighting, set for Nov. 25 in front of Bob’s Flower Shop. I hear Santa will be making an appearance, too.